One woman reached for a painkiller in a dim room at about 2 a.m. Another took her vitamins during a morning walk. Both swallowed a wireless earbud instead. The two accidents happened years and continents apart, but they share a pattern that U.S. poison experts have warned about for years with a different small, battery-powered object.
The more recent case, from emergency physicians at SPARSH Hospital in Bengaluru, India, was published in Cureusand involved a 22-year-old woman. The authors believe it is the first published report of an adult accidentally swallowing a wireless earbud. Her first X-ray showed the device had already moved past her stomach. Doctors chose to watch rather than intervene; follow-up films confirmed the earbud stayed intact, and it passed within five days without endoscopy or surgery. MedicalDaily covered the clinical details of that case earlier this month. The way the mix-up happened, however, points to a broader and entirely preventable hazard.
